Indon lawyer says Al-Ghozi’s death ‘suspicious’

A lawyer for the family of slain Indonesian bomb-maker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi has branded his death as "suspicious" after they found no traces of gunpowder on his hand.

Wirawan Adnan said he will demand that Al-Ghozi’s body be examined to determine the cause of death before being buried.

"Our team, who examined his body in the Philippines, suspects that he did not open fire because there was no trace of gunpowder in his hand," he said.

The Philippine military said Al-Ghozi was killed in a gunfight in Pigkawayan, North Cotabato on Sunday, three months after he escaped from a detention cell at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Camp Crame, where he had been serving a 17-year jail term for possessing explosives.

He escaped July 14 with two Abu Sayyaf members, Abdulmukim Edris and Omar Opik Lasal. Edris was killed on Aug. 7 as he tried to grab his guard’s gun after he was recaptured, while Lasal was captured in Zamboanga del Sur last Oct. 8.

Al-Ghozi’s body arrived in his hometown in East Java, Indonesia early yesterday. His body was laid in state at his mother’s home in Madiun district and was to be buried today or tomorrow next to his father, who died in May.

Indonesian sources said Al-Ghozi’s mother Rukanah has reportedly asked through a lawyer for an autopsy to be conducted by independent medico-legal experts from Jakarta.

Al-Ghozi’s family asked for the autopsy so that the controversy surrounding his death will be clarified, the sources said.

Shortly after he was convicted, Al-Ghozi confessed that he used part of his explosives stockpile to bomb the Manila light railway, killing 22 people in December 2000.

He also reportedly said JI had planned to use the remainder for a bombing campaign in Singapore.

State Witness?

In a related development, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly eyeing Lasal as a state witness in the case against police intelligence officers charged with negligence in connection with the July 14 escape.

Lasal was flown back to Manila late Wednesday from Zamboanga City under military custody and will be brought to the DOJ for further questioning on the escape, GMA 7’s "Saksi" news program reported Wednesday night. He was registered in the passenger manifest as Oscar Laguna.

The military is reportedly interested in tapping Lasal for more information on the Abu Sayyaf to help them neutralize the bandit group.

Zamboanga City state prosecutor Ricardo Carabon said Lasal was "consistent in his revelations relative to the plan that they made to escape, especially at the time they bolted their detention cell until they reached Cagayan de Oro."

Lasal earlier attributed their escape to a defective lock on their prison cell, adding that their guards were sleeping at the time. He claimed they remained unnoticed by policemen up until they left the grounds of Camp Crame.

Carabon said Lasal has claimed Edris plotted their escape. After Edris made a call to the wife of Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafy Janjalani using a cellular phone he stole on their way out of the PNP headquarters, the three fugitives proceeded to Mindanao.

"According to him, it was Edris who initiated the plan and who really led the two of them in bolting their detention cell," Carabon said.

Lasal claimed that when the three of them reached Cagayan de Oro City, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) commander Akkidin Abdusalam, also known as Commander Kiddie, fetched them and brought them to his camp.

But Lasal said they settled in at another MILF camp in Lanao del Norte for most of the two months they were out of sight.

He earlier said that Janjalani wanted to personally meet Al-Ghozi but the meeting did not push through after Edris’ death.

The MILF has repeatedly denied having any connection with terrorist groups. Al-Ghozi was said to have taught MILF rebels how to make bombs during his visit to their camps. — AFP, Ann Corvera, Edith Regalado